Tag: fitness blog

B&M is one of the UK’s fastest growing variety retailers and we blooming love it, so when we were asked if we wanted to join in with their January campaign we immediately jumped at the opportunity. They believe in selling ‘Big Brands for Sensational Prices’ and think they do this really well.

We always notice more B&M stores in the north of the country but this might have something to do with the fact B&M’s first store opened in Blackpool. They now have over 560 stores across the country so you are bound to find a store near to you.

If you haven’t been to B&M before and you are anything like us then make sure you give yourself some time to browse the isles, we love it and could spend so much time and money in there. We scheduled in a day to go to B&M for the campaign and we basically wanted to purchase everything we came across.

We love fitness (as you well know) so we were especially excited when we saw B&M had an activewear range. We went for the grey and coral full length leggings which were such a bargain only costing us £6.99! They also had twin pack sports bras for £7.99 and double packs of leggings for £11.99. We also spotted they had protein shakers and water bottles on sale which we didn’t opt for this time but we will be back.

We have so many girly sleepovers with hot chocolate and chick flicks (or usually in our case getting blog work ticked off the do list) that we thought what better to accompany it than with new mugs, some marshmallows, popcorn and of course our favourite chocolate.

We actually couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the price of the popcorn- 25p and the marshmallows- 39p what an absolute bargain!

We already have a date in the diary and we are so very excited already. It won’t be long until we are back in B&M we have a wish list that just keeps on growing.

This time last year the concept of meeting people online and actually meeting up with them would have scared us. We were worried we wouldn’t know what to say or what to talk about, would it be awkward? How wrong were we!

We used to shy away at events and keep ourselves to ourselves why? We don’t actually know, we have each other so we suppose that is our kind of safety net but we needed to start meeting likeminded people who got this crazy online world.

We have a lot of friends who we love so much and we wouldn’t change them for the world, but none of them run a blog or Instagram, so when we talk to them about certain things like the Instagram algorithm for example it just isn’t the same they look at you like you are mad!

At the end of 2017 we took the plunge and decided to meet up with some of the girls we had been speaking to on social media over the past year. We can honestly say we are so glad we have it was never awkward conversation kept flowing and there was so much we wanted to talk about. Oh and the best part of it? They didn’t find us weird or laugh at us for wanting to take a picture of our food or when we got our camera out to vlog instead they joined in and it was FAB!

Our friends and family who aren’t bloggers seem fascinated by the concept of ‘blogger friends’ but we truly believe that real genuine friendships can be formed online. It is the norm to meet your partner online these days so what’s wrong with meeting new friends online.

We completely understand that it can be dangerous meeting up with people you do not know so stay safe and make sure you have told family and friends exactly where you are going.

In 2018 we hope to continue the current friendships we formed in 2017 and maybe even meet a few more of you lovelies! Push yourself out of your comfort zone and go and meet some of your friends from the blogging community, stay safe always and have fun!

Is it just us or every winter do you have that one new coat that you will always choose to wear over any other coats you own? That is exactly what we have been doing with our Lapasa coat, we absolutely love it, especially as we are now matching head to toe!

Lapasa very kindly sent us both a windproof winter puffer coat in the colour burgundy (our favourite colour) and we haven’t taken it off since. Although it feels quite thin it is incredibly warm and the perfect coat to take if you are travelling somewhere as it is very light weight.

We have been working with Lapasa for a few months now (catch up on our previous blog post about the brand here), we absolutely love working with Lapasa the products are an amazing quality and we couldn’t recommend them enough as a brand.

It is the perfect every day use coat, but would also be great for any outdoor winter sports. We have worn it on so many winter walks over the festive period and everyone always complements us on it.

Lapasa have so many amazing products we couldn’t promote their leggings anymore than we already do. They are super soft and fit amazingly (they are super high waisted which we love). We have got them in a range of colours and literally live in our black ones.

The jacket is £35.95 which is such a good price for a coat especially as it is so versatile. You can also use our code ‘TWOBRITS’ at checkout to get 5% off all orders, we always order the products from the Amazon (the delivery time is amazing).

Do you ever just wake up in the morning and all you fancy doing is going for a long walk through the woods? We LOVE walking we think it does wonders for the mind and we always feel so much better for it.

There is something about getting out of bed on a Sunday morning, putting on some trainers, our scruffy clothes and getting outside to enjoy the fresh air in this beautiful world we live in. Sundays are usually our rest days from the gym so instead we slow down the pace and just go for a casual stroll instead, it’s the only time of the week where we actually slow down, no wonder our minds work at 100mph if our bodies are doing exactly the same.

We have both been lucky enough to grow up with the woods just a stone throw away and trust us we don’t take it for granted, we absolutely love it and we make the most of it wherever possible. Sunday morning are always so peaceful we rarely see another soul, which always surprises us as we always expect to see lots of people, although saying that most people are probably enjoying a lazy Sunday in bed as we are known to wake up unusually early. You will see us out in the woods come rain, snow or shine, we especially love it in the snow it’s like our own little winter wonderland where we can pretend we are in Narnia it’s truly is beautiful.

We have never understood why people HATE walking? Walking is free and one of the easiest ways to get fit and become more active yet so many people hate it. As a society it has become too easy to get from A to B without using your legs, there are so many different types of transport these days it has resulted in us not having to walk.

We are those people that think it’s possible to WALK anywhere and everywhere, we recently saw a meme on Facebook of this and it made us laugh because that is us down to a T! We always try and beat the Google Maps whenever we walk anywhere it’s become a little game we have, because we are so COOL!

Almost everyone’s Fitness motivation is on a high come the 2nd of January once everyone has got over their NYE hangover and wants to start living a healthier life, it is a new year new start bla bla bla. We are here to help you choose some classes that will help whip you back into shape.

Barrys Bootcamp- it’s time to sweat out all the wine and mince pies you have consumed over the Christmas break and nothing is going to make you sweat like Barry’s Bootcamp. You can read our previous review here where we go into so much more detail, but we would definitely recommend the full body class. Half way through the class we both turned to each other and mouthed ‘I am going to chunder’ it was funny as we did it at the same time but luckily we didn’t because that would have been embarrassing.

One 10 cycle-if you haven’t read our One 10 review before you can find it here. We will definitely be showing our face in One 10 during the month of January it is such a fun sweaty session that will leave you wanting to go back for more. One 10 Cycle has some of the best spinning instructors in town and they are always there encouraging you whilst whipping your but into gear.

Kobox- because who doesn’t love a post christmas punching session? Kobox is located on the Kings Road so the perfect location if you want to do a spot of sale shopping afterwards. We love a Kobox class and they really get you sweaty which is always a good thing! Their tag line is perfect ‘where fight club meets night club’ because it is SO true!

Another Space- why not attend a sweaty Cycle class at Another Space. Another space is located in the heart of Soho only a short walk from Covent Garden. We love attending Olivia’s class she brings so much energy into the room it’s incredible so definitely book onto one of her classes! Oh and the shakes after the class are even more of a reason to get your butt down there they taste amazing!

‘How can you run so far? I wish I could run as far as you two but I just can’t’

We hear this so often and everytime our answer is ‘we never used to be able to run either but everyone can run, so if we can do it you can as well’. The first race we ever did was a 5K colour run, Rach was on placement year and trained really hard for it. Annie on the other hand was still at University and thought the typical 5km isn’t that far I don’t need to train but boy was I wrong. It was that run though that made Annie want to train properly and actually get into running (after the embarrassment of having to walk some of the way).

5km is honestly the hardest milestone to get to and we tell everyone this time and time again. Start short and just extend your run bit by bit each time and before you know it you will be able to run 5km, it will take time depending on how frequently you run so don’t get disheartened when you first start running and have to walk after 5 minutes.

We have set out some top tips below that we would have found helpful when we first started running

Listen to music- make sure you have a good playlist when you running, something that is going to inspire you to keep going. When you first start running you might want to create a playlist that has a variety of different styles of songs so you can see what you do like or what you don’t like when running. We like to have a mixture between old classics (got to love a bit of spice girls), chart music & a couple of dance songs thrown in the mix.

Download a good podcast-we have recently started to get into podcasts when we run. We find it passes time really quickly as you are concentrating more about what the person is saying on the podcast rather than thinking ‘how much further have I got to go’ after each stride. We have been listening to lots of blogging podcasts and our favourites at the moment is ‘What She Said’ by Lucy She…. And ‘Made Online’ by… this way it means we actually gain knowledge about blogging whilst we are doing something that is good for us- win win.

Invest in some good running trainers-you won’t know how important these are until you actually have them.

Download a running app- make sure you download a running app to your phone so you know how far you have run and what pace you are running at. Not that the pace is important but you will find the more you run the faster you become so it can be interesting to look back at. We are using the Fitbit app as we both have Fitbits but prior to that we always used the Nike running app which we found really good and the distance was always accurate.

Map your route- we always like to have an idea of where we are running so we have something to aim for when we are running. We sometimes use the app map my run as you are able to choose the route you want to go and also know the distance before you leave the house. We would love it if you could give an app your address, let it know the distance you want to run and then allow the app to choose the route for you. If this app already exists then please do let us know because it would be so cool and your run would be different every time which also brings us on nicely to the next point.

Mix up your runs-When we first started out running and wanting to hit 5KM we used to run/part walk the same route every time as we wanted to see how much further we could run this time compared to our previous run. Running the same route over and over again can become borings so if you are feeling unmotivated to go out on a run try a new route because a change of scenery may be exactly what you need.

Running 5km is such a brilliant goal to have for any new runners, find a race you want to run and enter it that way you will have something to work towards (or run towards lol).

One 10 has recently opened in Baker street (16 Baker Street to be exact). We first came across one 10 when we were walking down Baker Street one Saturday morning a month or so before it opened when we happened to notice they were running a competition to win 25 free rides. You had to take a photo in front of the One 10 sign and post it on Instagram or tweet them the photo on twitter of course we decided to enter. We were then tagged in a photo by One 10 to let us know we had won the competition we were so surprised and chuffed that we had won so once again thanks so much One 10.

When we went to activate our voucher and book our first spinning class we noticed you could only book one individual on a class under your username (so you couldn’t book a friend on as well they would have to have their own account). We messaged One 10 on Instagram to ask them how we could both book ourselves onto one class and they said we couldn’t but they had given us both a voucher to activate. We were so surprised that they had very kindly given us both 25 free rides we knew right about we were going to like One 10 and the people that worked there. Most of the time brands or competitions expect us to share the prize because there are two of us so it was a lovely surprise to see that they were happy to give us both 25 free rides when they could have easily of made someone else the winner of their competition.

One 10 have two classes on offer the first one being Paceline which is a fast paced high intensity workout. The idea is to challenge yourself for a personal best they track your performance live on the interactive screen throughout the class.

The other class is called Nirvana which is a full body session where you ride to the beat in a club like atmosphere. They also use weights during the session which is something we have never seen before, its great fun especially when they play throwback music.

Everyone that goes to One 10 has their own moves profile where you can log in and check your moves, the distance you cycled or the calories you burnt in a class. We love looking at our stats as we can see if we are improving each time we attend.

We decided to attend our first One 10 class together so booked ourselves onto the Wednesday 18:45 Paceline class with Leo. It was our first time doing attending a spinning studio (we had been spinning before but nothing on this level). The staff were so incredibly helpful they helped us set up our bikes and clip our cleats into the pedals (it’s easy once you get the hang of it but it did take Annie a while to grasp it lol).

We particularly like the 9:00am class on a Saturday morning with Vicky S she always has so much energy and it’s such a great way to start the weekend whether you are cycling off a hangover or just want to kick start your weekend with a sweaty session. We also really like the Thursday morning class with Josh, he really knows how to make everyone in the class feel motivated and his choice of songs are just the best! Just what you need to kick start your Thursday.

The changing rooms at One 10 are so lush (but a tiny weeny bit small). They have lots of locker space which you can keep your belongings in during the class as you can lock them using a code. Some of the bigger lockers also have a USB port so a great place to charge your phone.

The shampoo, conditioner and body wash is all Cowshed our favourite so we were very excited to take a shower at One 10. They have a lots of mirrors in the toilet so there is lots of places for you to get ready after the spin class. They also have GHD straighteners that you can use which we have noticed is the norm for quite a few London Gyms.

After the workout you can grab a Botanic Lab grab-and-go juice on the way out!

One 10 have recently started an offer where you can book 5 classes in the week for £50 which is amazing seeing as the classes are usually £20 each. So if you love spinning during the week then we would suggest this would be a brilliant deal especially if you live close to Baker Street.

If you want a sweaty session filled with an abundance of energy then we would definitely recommend getting your butt down to One 10 because you definitely won’t come out of the class with the same colour top that you went into the class with, the sweat is real.

One of the first things we pack when going on holiday is our running trainers, we love getting outside and going for a run somewhere we have never been before. Recently we spent a week in Cornwall, Port Isaac to be exact and we loved our early morning runs.

Every morning before our run we would enjoy a coffee in bed whilst appreciating and admiring the incredible view we had from our bedroom window our coffee of choice this trip was spiced pumpkin flavour 🎃 which was incredible.

Visiting Cornwall

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

We decided to run to Port Gaverne, it was only a short distance away from Port Isaac. When we got to Port Gaverne we ran up the headlands to a view point that was truly stunning and every morning we made sure we stopped for a few minutes to appreciate the view.

Stunning views in Port Isaac

There is something about Cornwall or the countryside in general that makes you slow down and actually enjoy the surroundings when we are in London everything is so fast paced we never get a chance to stop and appreciate everything around us.

Port Gaverne in the morning

We did this run several times during out stay switching it up a little bit each time so it didn’t become boring, not that is could because every corner we turned we were met with another incredible view point.

By the seaside

On the way back we had to run up the steepest hill in the world honestly it was torture but once we were at the top it was a straight road back to the cottage where we would shower and then sit down and enjoy a well-deserved breakfast.

The breakfast we had almost every single day this holiday was natural yoghurt, oats and peanut butter all mixed together it sounds weird but tastes amazing.

Lapasa is a yoga and underwear company from Canada that are based in Hong Kong. They are currently selling their products on Amazon and their biggest market is in the US. They are in the process of penetrating the UK market and want to work in cooperation with U.K. Bloggers.

When we were contacted by Lapasa about their activewear we immediately said yes. We love finding new gym brands that we can wear to the gym and share with our followers and it’s even better when they are SO affordable.

Let’s be honest some activewear can be ridiculously expensive and the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is usually true when it comes to activewear. It can become quite pricey especially if you are an avid gym goers who needs new leggings almost every day OR if you just really enjoy lounging around in activewear because we do this 99.9% of the time. Well we have some good news for you, when we looked at the price tags for Lapasa we noticed everything was priced at such good value we were shocked.

We opted for the leggings in burgundy and eagerly waited for them to arrive. We didn’t have to wait long at all they arrived two days later.

When they arrived we immediately fell in love with the packaging. They came in a beautiful white box that showed off a small snippet of the leggings. We think the packing of products is so important and you can tell when a brand has spent a bit of money on their packaging. Cheap packaging devalues the product and makes opening the product less of an experience. Lapasa have definitely got their packaging right and this is something we will definitely remember about the brand every time we place an order.

We immediately tried the leggings on and straight away we both fell in love. They were so ridiculously soft and fit perfectly, we didn’t ever want to take them off.

We always opt for high waisted leggings, we prefer the fit as they are way more flattering and generally a lot comfier. We do sometimes slightly panic or worry when ordering online as to whether leggings are high waisted or not but to our surprise they were which made us love them even more. Rach doesn’t always love the thick waist band but she has made an exception on these leggings.

We ordered a size 6-8 and they are the perfect fit. We are both quite short (okay not quite very) and the length on these leggings is perfect. We sometimes find we get a lot of extra material either on the legs or the waist band but this was not the case with these.

We are definitely going to be ordering more leggings and sports bras and you can as well using out 10% off discount code which is ‘TWOBRITS’. All you have to do is enter this discount code at check out and it will deduct it off your total. You can find the Lapasa range here.

We will be receiving 15% commissions off all products sold using our discount code, but we honestly wouldn’t share something with you if we didnt think highly of it 🙂

It took us a while to feel confident in the gym, we didn’t really know what we were doing at first, who really does? Try and be consistent with your gym schedule, going to the gym once every two weeks probably isn’t going to help your confidence in the gym so try and go more frequently.

It’s so easy to feel self conscious in the gym even the fittest leanest people feel self conscious, you are your bodies own worst critique and whilst you are stood there looking in the mirror critiquing your body the person next to you is probably doing the exact same about their body and hasn’t even noticed you stood next to them.

Below are 6 top tips to help you wave goodbye to all the worry and fear you may have had about the gym, you got dis!

1). Wear something you feel comfortable in- Remember its not a fashion show and the last thing you want is to feel uncomfortable at the gym, so why not take yourself on a little active wear shopping spree, buying new gym gear can be a great motivation and can help make you feel sassy whilst at the gym. Some of our favourite shops to buy new and affordable active wear is Primark, H&M, Newlook and Missguided.

2). Ask for help or an induction- there is no problem in asking for help instead of struggling and not knowing what to do with a machine. Most men at the gym love being asked how to work a machine so don’t be afraid to ask. If you are new to the gym why not arrange an induction class or even a one off personal training session, this should help get you on track with what you want to do at the gym.

3). Work out with a friend- it can be less intimidating and you are likely to be less scared of embarrassed to try new machines and equipment in the gym if you are both trying it together. Why not have a joint personal training session as well so you can split the cost between you if you are both new to the gym and want to learn.

4). Make a plan- decide what you want to do before you go to the gym, we like to write notes on our phones so we have a rough plan on what we want to do when at the gym. You may have to be flexible with your plan though depending on what machines are available so have a couple of ideas in mind so you have something to fall back on.

5). Go off peak or at a quieter time- if you can, we know its not always possible with work commitments etc. but if you can try and go a slightly quieter times. Friday evenings in the gym are the dream!

6). Watch YouTube videos- we love watching workout videos on YouTube, they are a great way to learn new tips and techniques that you can put into practice when you are next at the gym. There are so many amazing fitness YouTubers out there! You can read all about our favourites here.